We were going up a long, slightly sloping street, the entire length of which was now being warmed by the June sun from which most of the inhabitants had escaped indoors. All of a sudden, at the other end of this street a man appeared, staggering and obviously drunk. His head was stuck forward as he lurched, with unsteady legs and his arms dangling on either side of his body, in a series of three, six or ten little steps at a time, followed by a rest. When his brief burst of energy took him into the middle of the road he stopped dead and teetered, hesitating between collapse and a fresh surge. Then off he went at a tangent again. He ran straight into the wall of a house and seemed for a moment glued there as if he expected to be drawn in by suction. Then, with a shake he turned round and stared fixedly ahead, slack-jawed, his eyes blinking against the glare of the sun. Jerking his back off the wall he set off once more. A scrawny little yellow mongrel followed him, barking, stopping and starting in accompaniment.

‘Well, well,’ said Marambot, ‘there’s Madame Husson’s Rose King.’9

I was extremely surprised and asked: ‘Madame Husson’s Rose King? What do you mean by that?’

The doctor began to laugh.

‘Oh, it’s what we call drunkards round here. It’s an old story that’s become a bit of a legend locally. Even though every word of it is true.’

‘Good story?’

‘Very funny indeed.’

‘Tell me then.’

‘With pleasure.’

‘In this town, there used to live a very proper, correct old lady who was a great believer in virtue. Her name was Madame Husson.10 These are real names that I’m telling you – I’m not making them up. Madame Husson was particularly involved with good works, helping the poor, encouraging the worthy, that sort of thing. She was small and took tiny little steps. She wore a black silk wig and was on very good terms with the Almighty in the person of the abbé Malou. She abhorred vice of any kind but particularly the one the Church refers to as lust. The idea of any kind of intimacy before marriage incensed her. She used to be beside herself at the thought of it.